Best Buy Becomes Exclusive U.S. Retailer for New Line of Fnatic Peripherals

By Trent MurrayThe eSports ObserverMay 3, 2018

Fnatic announces Best Buy as its exclusive U.S. retailer for a new line of gaming hardware.

The team sells a line of “esports approved” mice and keyboards called Fnatic Gear.

Fnatic’s latest Gear line will be available in over 300 Best Buy stores on May 20.

European esports organization Fnatic announced an exclusive partnership with Best Buy. The tech retail chain will be the United States retailer for Fnatic’s new line of gaming equipment: Fnatic Gear Generation 2. The line includes two keyboards and two mice designed for competitive gaming.

“We’re dedicated to giving our customers a place to see, try and buy all of the latest gaming tech, so we’re thrilled to partner with Fnatic on this new collection of gaming equipment as the exclusive U.S. retailer.” said Josh Will, Senior Vice President of Merchandising at Best Buy.

Fnatic’s head of R&D and engineering, Felix Guerra previously worked at Corsair’s R&D center in Taiwan, as the company’s senior director of product development and engineering. “The team spent countless hours listening to feedback from players and fans to create the product line that’s fully loaded with new features and built-in functionality to give gamers everything they need to perform,” he says.

Fnatic originally launched its Gear line in 2016 after a successful IndieGoGo campaign, which raised just over $240K. The peripheral range is one of several ways Fnatic has expanded its brand, with others including a sponsorship deal with music platform Deezer and partnership with esports reality show GAMERZ.

330 Best Buy stores in the U.S. will exclusively stock Fnatic’s products. This marks the first partnership for the consumer electronics chain in the esports space. In the past, however, its online store has sold gaming peripherals while also promoting the teams sponsored by those brands e.g. featuring Evil Geniuses alongside SteelSeries’ range, and Team SoloMid with Logitech G products.